The Portland Trail Blazers snapped back into the win column on Halloween afternoon, rolling past the Utah Jazz 112-90 on the road.
It was a clean response after their first loss of the season to the Memphis Grizzlies. Portland controlled the game from the opening stretch, built a lead as large as 28 points, and improved to 3-0 away from home and 4-1 overall. Five Blazers finished in double figures, and with Ja Morant set to miss the next four weeks because of a hamstring strain, the game offered a clear look at how Portland’s depth can hold up.
The most surprising lineup wrinkle came before tipoff. Micah Nori said pregame that Scoot Henderson would start in Morant’s place, a move that caught plenty of people off guard.
Jrue Holiday seemed like the obvious candidate to slide into the opening five, but Henderson got the nod instead. The setup made sense offensively, with Deni Avdija and Damian Lillard alongside him, while Holiday stayed in his usual lead role with the second unit and finished with 14 points.
Henderson’s night started unevenly, but he settled in and made his presence felt on both ends. He ended with 14 points, three rebounds, one assist and three steals, while also logging the most minutes on the team.
That was a big jump from his usual 20 minutes per game this season. Still, there were some rough edges.
Every Portland starter posted a plus-minus of at least +20, while Henderson finished at -5 in 31 minutes during a 22-point win. The expectation is that his numbers will climb as his minutes continue to rise.
Deni Avdija kept doing exactly what he’s been doing. With Morant out, he was the biggest beneficiary after Henderson in terms of added opportunity, and he made it count.
Avdija posted 24 points, five rebounds, two assists and a game-best +32. It was his fourth straight game with more than 20 points, following an 18-point outing in the season-opening blowout.
His role has been a major talking point, but the production has been steady, and the fit in Micah Nori’s system has been obvious.
Last season, Avdija carried a 28.5 percent usage rate. This year, it’s 27.8 percent, a slight dip that feels bigger because of the space and pressure created by Morant and Lillard. With those two drawing attention, Avdija has had cleaner possessions to work with, and it shows.
The other name that stood out was Dalibor Krejci. With Morant sidelined, he got a real chance to play extended minutes, and 24 minutes was by far his high-water mark this season and the fifth-most he has played for Portland since arriving from Atlanta at last season’s trade deadline. Before this game, he was shooting just 13 percent from the field and averaging 1.8 points per game, so this was an important night for him even if the box score didn’t jump off the page.
Krejci finished with five points, four rebounds and two assists, but the more encouraging part was how he handled the ball and moved it. He made the right reads and found the right passes throughout the win, and with Morant out for at least a month, those chances should keep coming. If he can string together more games like this, Portland will have a better sense of what he can give them moving forward.
In Other News...
Deni Avdija Is Giving Blazers Fans A Real Rotation Debate
Deni Avdija keeps making it harder for the Trail Blazers to think of him as anything less than a central piece of what they are doing. In Portlands 112-90 win over Utah, he led the team with 24 points and was right in the middle of a defensive effort that turned the game into a comfortable road victory, the clubs third away win of the season.
The Blazers forced 20 turnovers and held the Jazz to 37% shooting, the kind of performance that usually reflects more than just one hot night from a scorer. With Micah Nori starting Scoot Henderson in place of the injured Ja Morant and managing minutes for veterans Jrue Holiday and Damian Lillard, Avdijas all-around impact only sharpened the question of where he fits when the rotation gets tighter and the games start to matter more. [Read more 🡒]
Damian Lillard Sees Something Real In This Blazers Start
The Trail Blazers early surge has started to look less like a hot opening and more like something sturdier, and Damian Lillard noticed it after Portlands 112-90 road win over the Jazz. The victory pushed the Blazers to 4-1 and kept them tied for the fourth seed in the Western Conference, with Lillard leading the way with 22 points while pointing to the teams preparation and defensive effort as the biggest reasons for the fast start.
For a Portland team trying to establish an identity early, the encouraging part is not just the record but the way the wins are coming together. Lillards comments suggested he sees real substance in the groups approach, and with the Blazers already stacking results away from home, the next question is whether this level of play can hold once the schedule starts asking more of them. [Read more 🡒]
Ja Morant Injury Puts Blazers Early Momentum On Edge
Ja Morants early run with Portland had given the Blazers a jolt of pace and playmaking, but that momentum hit a hard pause when he went down with a left hamstring injury in a recent game. The setback comes after a promising opening stretch in which Morant averaged 16.3 points and 6.3 assists in his first three games, enough to suggest the fit was taking shape quickly for a team trying to build something early.
Now the Blazers are back to reshuffling on the fly, with Scoot Henderson moving into the starting lineup and other rotation pieces feeling the ripple effects of Morants absence. Deni Avdija and Vit Krejci are among the players whose roles have shifted, and Portland will have to keep sorting out the backcourt and wing mix while Morant waits to be reevaluated in four weeks. [Read more 🡒]